First of all do not be put off by the generic title, the subtitle
of Almila’s Second Wind Quintet or by the name of the performing
ensemble. There is nothing hysterical here, be it in the music
or in the actual playing. On the contrary, what we have is a
happily varied programme of Finnish works for wind quintet of
which the Kokkonen is by far the best known piece.

I must admit (again!) that Almila’s name and music are completely
new to me. Browsing through his list of works available on the
Finnish Music Information Centre’s website shows that he has
a huge and varied catalogue to his credit. His Second Wind Quintet
Arctic Hysteria is in fact a kind of suite comprising
six character pieces. The meditative and melancholy first movement
New Thousand and Six seems to allude to “a deeply tragic
event” about which we are not told anything at all. The next
movement Neither and Nor is a brief Scherzo. This is
followed by a rather dark-hued movement Name of the Blame
with clear allusions to the Dies Irae and some disturbing
or ambiguous elements. The next movement is a fairly simple
and quite beautiful lullaby. The fifth movement, too, is another
rather straightforward piece of great delicacy. The final movement
Arctic Hysteria opens with an arresting fanfare launching
what I could best describe as a surreal kaleidoscope in which
a marching tune clashes with shadowed hints of The Internationale
and a Finnish folk tune. The movement and the whole work end
unresolved. What comes clearly through here is the superbly
crafted and effective writing for winds.

The late Pehr Henrik Nordgren seems to be a sort of house composer
since Alba has already released a number of discs entirely devoted
to his music, most of which I have reviewed here:
ABCD288;
ABCD269;
ABCD294;
ABCD308) He composed two wind quintets (Op.11 Three Enticements
– 1970 and Op.22 recorded here) as well as The Good Samaritan
Op.141. Incidentally, the notes about the Arctic Hysteria
Wind Quintet mention a third wind quintet that I have not been
able to identify, so that remark might actually be about The
Good Samaritan Op.141.) Nordgren’s The Good Samaritan
is a miniature tone poem. It opens calmly, hymn-like before
leading into the rather fierce central section describing how
the traveller was beaten by the robbers and ignored by the lofty
priest and the Levite and eventually rescued by the despised
Samaritan. The piece ends calmly as it began with a peaceful
benediction. The Wind Quintet No.2 Op.22 was composed
after the composer’s return from Japan. It is in three movements,
the first of which displays some minimalism, which was then
new in Nordgren’s music, but the music unfolds freely, with
lively rhythms and colourful textures. The second movement might
well be the work’s slow movement with a brief, animated central
section. The music is characterised by mildly dissonant harmonies.
The third movement opens with a long solo played by the alto
flute alluding to the Japanese shakuhachi, later joined by soft
humming from the other players imbuing the music with a slight
oriental colour. The music then becomes more animated and, at
times, allows for a short cadenza for each instrument. A brief,
varied restatement of the opening leads into the peaceful, dreamy
coda.

As already mentioned Kokkonen’s compact Wind Quintet is the
best known work here. It was composed when the composer was
at work on his opera The Last Temptations, and
the wind quintet served as a workshop in which the composer
tried out various ideas that were later more fully developed
in the opera. This is a typical Kokkonen work in which not a
single note is wasted.

So, in short, this is a varied programme of worthy pieces all
superbly played and well recorded. The only complaint that I
might voice again is about the rather short playing time that
might have allowed the inclusion of Nordgren’s first wind quintet.
This notwithstanding, what we have here is a very fine release
up to Alba’s best standards.

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